Lawmakers Press Holder on AP, IRS

Attorney General Testifies Before House Committee; Chairman Calls for 'Answers and Accountability'

By

Brent Kendall And

Peter Landers

Updated May 15, 2013 4:38 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Members of Congress expressed concern Wednesday about the Justice Department's subpoena of Associated Press phone records at a hearing where Attorney General Eric Holder had several testy confrontations with Republican lawmakers.

Members of Congress expressed concern about the Justice Department's subpoena of Associated Press phone records and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups at a hearing where Attorney General Eric Holder faced questions over his record.

ENLARGE

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
EPA

The House Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony from Mr. Holder amid multiple controversies involving the department, including the AP issue and the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.), said any abridgement of freedom of the press was "very concerning." The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, generally praised Mr. Holder's record but also said he was troubled the government sought such a broad array of phone records from AP. The department took calling records of some 20 phone numbers used by AP journalists, including personal numbers.

"I was not the person involved in that decision," said Mr. Holder, reiterating that he was recused from the case. "I am not familiar with the reasons" that the subpoena was written so broadly, he said. He said Deputy Attorney General James Cole was the person who authorized the subpoena.

Mr. Goodlatte said the Justice Department handling of the matter "appears to be contrary to the law and standard procedure."

The AP subpoenas were connected to a probe by Ronald Machen, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, into a leak concerning a 2012 counterterrorism operation in Yemen. Mr. Holder said that he recused himself because he was interviewed by investigators over the leak and was a "fact witness" in the case.

At a news conference Tuesday, Mr. Holder said the leak justified a vigorous probe because "it put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole."

On the IRS issue, Mr. Goodlatte said the agency's actions were "outrageous" and called for "answers and accountability."

Mr. Holder said the department would be "appropriately aggressive" in its investigation of the IRS's actions. But he also said he hoped the investigation wouldn't have a chilling effect on people raising legitimate questions about the ways in which groups seek tax-exempt status.

In response to a question from GOP Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, Mr. Holder said that among the potential criminal issues is whether officials made false statements. Critics have accused some IRS officials of misleading Congress about what they knew of the targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.

On several occasions, Republican lawmakers sparred with Mr. Holder, who frequently came under fire during the Obama administration's first term on issues such as the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking probe.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who led a congressional probe of Fast and Furious, hammered away at the actions of Justice Department lawyer Thomas Perez, who has been nominated as labor secretary. Mr. Issa took the unusual step of having the committee play an audio recording allegedly of Mr. Perez speaking about efforts to get a fair-housing case removed from the Supreme Court's docket.

"I know what the FBI did. You cannot know what I know," Mr. Holder told the lawmaker, who responded, "The attorney general failed to answer my questions."

Mr. Holder took the opportunity to clarify a remark at a previous hearing in March, when he made headlines by suggesting that criminal investigations of big banks were difficult because of their impact on the economy. "The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them," he told the Senate then.

On Wednesday, he said his remarks were misinterpreted and if cases against banks could be proven they would be brought. "Banks are not too big to jail," Mr. Holder said.

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